Back to the books
Fleming College buzzing again after bitter five-week faculty strike comes to an end
Fleming College students returned to classes Tuesday, a day after college faculty was forced back to work by the Ontario government.
The halls were abuzz with chatter, breaking the silence that lasted five weeks.
“It’s great to see the students back – there’s a lot of activity as you would expect,” said Tony Tilly, president of Fleming College.
Students’ return is followed by many questions, Tilly added, along with the need for reassurance.
The majority of their semester was lost after faculty at Ontario’s 24 community colleges walked the picket line for five weeks.
Although some dates have been shifted – extending classes a week in December and beginning a week earlier in January – the colleges haven’t released details as to how the semester will be condensed.
Now that faculty are back to work, Tilly said administration would sit down with faculty to go over the semester completion plans.
Looking back at the last faculty strike in 2006, Tilly said staff, faculty and students were able to pull together to generate a successful outcome.
“I was very appreciative of the hard work ... and I’m confident we can achieve the same,” he said.
Because of the significant time lost, students have been given the option of withdrawing from their program and receiving a full refund, or continuing on.
“We’re encouraging them to weigh up their choices carefully and make the personal choice that they can in their circumstances based upon having concrete information,” Tilly said.
Fleming’s roughly 350 full-time and partial-load faculty are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 352.
Liz Mathewson, president of Local 352, said faculty are committed to creating a strategy to get students back on track.
“Faculty are working really hard to be creative and get a plan in place so the semester can be finished,” Mathewson said.
Realizing many students had travel plans or booked tickets to return home for the holidays, faculty will do their best to accommodate those students, so they can go home as planned and still finish the semester, she said.
“We’re doing everything we can to allow them to do both,” Mathewson said.
The college’s 12,000 faculty members were ordered back to classrooms under back-to-work legislation introduced Monday.
Although they’ve been forced back to work, after rejecting their employers contract, Mathewson said faculty will be able to put that behind them for the good of the students.
“In the moment, we’re doing everything we can for the students, but in the back of our minds we realize it’s not resolved,” she said.
Tilly is confident faculty will do the same.
“I think people who love teaching and love working with students find a way to put that first,” he said.
Meanwhile, the College Employer Council – which bargains on behalf of the colleges – and OSPEU still have work to do.
They’re now in arbitration with a mediator, Mathewson said, with 90 days to settle on a contract.
Although the picket lines are down, there’s still some activity on Sutherland Campus. A handful of students are rallying in support of faculty.
Lorien Honoure, a first-year student law and justice student, helped arrange the rally that’s happening on the median by the school’s front doors. It’s expected to last all week.
He and several other students plan to spend time in between classes to show their support. They carry signs that say “students first” – faculty’s slogan.
By rallying, Honoure said they’re trying to bring the issues of the contract to light and set an example for fellow students.
“We want to encourage others to lend their voice, to speak up, to know they have a right to a voice,” said Honoure, 40.